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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27523609">Different</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/shxnosuke/pseuds/shxnosuke'>shxnosuke</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, very short semi and sister interaction</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 05:42:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,683</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27523609</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/shxnosuke/pseuds/shxnosuke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Every year, Prince Semi Eita disliked the birthday celebrations he had. It’s a little different this time though. Medieval!AU</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Semi Eita/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Different</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Semi's birthday (cross-posted from tumblr, which was posted on the actual day) :&gt;</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>From his balcony, watching the orange glow of the sun layering the royal garden would usually be a tranquil sight for him. But today, the sight of girls, all clad in different colours of glittery dresses in the royal garden irked him, the colours all fighting for attention. It wasn’t as if this was the first time it happened, but he just couldn’t get used to it.  </p>
<p>Retreating back into his room, Semi slumped on his bed and closed his eyes. Soon, he’d have to talk and dance with them. A year later, he’d have to choose a wife from all these girls that he wasn’t interested in. Practised smiles and giggles. Candied words that came out too sweet for his taste.</p>
<p>His mind drifted to you.</p>
<p>He’d occasionally sneak out to town to escape <strike>the stacks of paper on his desk</strike> experience how his people lived. That’s when he met you. You were running down the path with your hair dancing along the air currents. </p>
<p>Semi thought you did an excellent job swerving around people.</p>
<p>Amidst that, you still managed to give a smile to all the stall vendors you ran past. Some returned a smile which you didn’t see. The rest endearingly scolded for you to be careful and you waved as an acknowledgement. Clearly, it fell on deaf ears as you were still running as if your life depended on it.</p>
<p>You should have listened to them. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have crashed into him and fallen atop of the prince of the kingdom. Making eye contact briefly, you quickly stood up and he followed.</p>
<p>Giving a 90 degrees bow, you apologised to Semi.</p>
<p>He was about to question why you simply gave a bow when he realised you probably didn’t recognise him as the prince. People who don’t live in the districts closer to the castle or those who don’t keep up with kingdom affairs wouldn’t really know who he was. You were probably both.</p>
<p>“Please rise, don’t feel bad.”</p>
<p>Giving him a quick scan, guilt was written all over your face. “Is there anything I can do to repay you?”</p>
<p>He was about to refuse when an idea struck him.</p>
<p>“I’m new here, please show me around next Tuesday. We can meet here at 11am.”</p>
<p>Without a second thought, you agreed.</p>
<p>Both of you met frequently as if you’ve known each other for years. After a while, he could no longer use the “I want to know the town better” reasoning to convince himself of why he was sneaking away. Sure, he wanted to get away from his tasks, but you intrigued him as well and he wanted to get to know you.</p>
<p>He enjoyed your company. The usually dishevelled, simply clothed you. Much better than the rich who put so much glamour and all they want is power.</p>
<p>Semi hid his identity from you and fabricated all sorts of reasons whenever he couldn’t make it for your weekly meetups. You always took them without questioning any of it, saying that everyone has something that they’ll need to tend to. To you, he was Eita (he’d left out his family name just in case your radar turned sharp), her first guy best friend she crashed into the first day he came into town.  </p>
<p>Whenever he couldn’t make it at the last moment, he tried to rush through any tasks that he has. He made it a point to show up even if he was hours late because you would still be there (unless it was after your curfew time). He’d apologise profusely and try to make it up to you. It wasn’t that you didn’t get annoyed, but you always forgave him.</p>
<p>But he wouldn’t say he’s knows you very well either. It’s been almost half a year, but he felt that many things about you were still hidden behind a veil. To him, you were (y/n), his first friend outside of the castle who happened to have the same age as him. And you hated pickles. </p>
<p>
  <em>“Hey, (y/n). Sorry but I won’t be able to hang out next week.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>You didn’t look surprised and had an unreadable expression on your face. “Me too.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>You stood up from the bench. “I gotta go now, see you soon!”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Without waiting for a response, you took to your heels.</em>
</p>
<p>You still hung heavily in his mind. Feeling as if he said he was busy way too many times, he wasn’t sure if you were finally done being friends with him.</p>
<p>A knock on his door pulled him out of his thoughts. “Your highness, it’s time for you to make your way to the hall with the King, Queen and the princess.”</p>
<p>Sighing and pushing back his hair, he heeded to the call.</p>
<p>On the way to the hall, his sister tapped at his shoulder. “So, is it going to be like the other years?”</p>
<p>“Wipe that shit-eating grin off your face. Someday it’ll be your turn to look for a prince consort.”</p>
<p>His sister returned an even larger smile and before he could say anything, a thundering voice echoed from the entrance to the hall.</p>
<p>“The King, The Queen, The Prince and The Princess has arrived!”</p>
<p>His sister and mother took their seats while he trailed behind his father towards the front of the elevated stage.</p>
<p>Semi walked forward and put on his most practised, most amiable smile. “Thank you everyone for coming today. I’m very honoured to have you here, celebrating my birthday with me today. Some of you have been coming for a few years and I am grateful to have you celebrating my birthday for consecutive years. As with the past years, please enjoy yourselves today.”</p>
<p>He took his seat with his father and scanned the room. He noticed someone unfamiliar from the previous years, scarfing down food at a corner of the room near the trays of food. She had her hair neatly styled and wore a sea blue gown. Black sleeves wrapped around her arms down to her wrists.</p>
<p>An older lady walked to her with brows furrowed. She was visibly restraining herself from reprimand the girl while the girl wearing white sighed. When she returned to eating her food, she was eating it in a more graceful way. The older lady left to get some food and soon returned. </p>
<p>There was also something about her that Semi couldn’t pinpoint. He continued to observe her, hoping he could find something in his memory. After a while, he rose and walked towards her. Other girls squealed as he walked past, making comments about him.</p>
<p>Seeing that Semi was approaching, the young lady set aside her food on the table beside. Both of them gave him a curtsy, not looking at him in the eye, and only the young lady spoke.</p>
<p>“Prince Semi.”</p>
<p>At that moment, something in his brain clicked.</p>
<p>Semi muttered under his breath, “(Y/n)…?”</p>
<p>Your mother’s eyes darted to you and you mouthed to her, “I’ll explain to you later.”</p>
<p>“Eita- No, Prince Semi. Yes, that’s me. But I think you’d better address me as Miss (F/n).”</p>
<p>Your mother left the both of you alone. Semi was clearly bursting with all the questions that he had. He thought he had you deceived, but it was the other way around.”</p>
<p>“What are you doing here? I thought-”</p>
<p>“You thought I was a commoner?”</p>
<p>Semi nodded. He was about to open his mouth to ask more, but you put up a hand to stop him.</p>
<p>“Dance with me and I’ll answer your questions.”</p>
<p>Realising that the music has been playing for a while, he agreed and led you to the dance floor.</p>
<p>Exchanging whispered answers to the questions at the tip of your tongues and apologies for hiding identities as the both of you danced, everyone else in the room faded away.</p>
<p>You were always in a mono-coloured shirt and pants, with dishevelled hair as you ran freely around town. At that moment, you seemed to be an entirely different person. Your eyes sparkled, as if your dishevelled hair had been filtering some of that light. You held yourself high, with an air of formality.</p>
<p>You told him you never went for his birthday celebrations for the past years as you didn’t know him. Your parents had wanted you to attend the event, but you always ran out of their grasp whenever the day came. You had bad experiences with other royals and no matter how high his rank was, what was to say that Semi was worth your time?  </p>
<p>You had known all along that he was the prince, ever since the first day you crashed into him. But you pretended not to know. Naturally, as you spent time with him, you got to know him. The sly glint present in most of the eyes of those she met was absent in his. His words carefully crafted to ensure it doesn’t hurt you, not that he was wielding it to try to get on the good side of you.  </p>
<p>And most of all, he never flaunted his power. Whenever he wanted to get his way, he could have revealed his identity. After all, you never complained about royalty to him, so there was pretty much nothing stopping him from using his authority.  </p>
<p>As the song approached the end, you whispered in his ears. “Happy birthday, Eita-kun. See you next week. Same place, same time.”</p>
<p>Not releasing his grasp on you, he asked, “Are you mad? You know, you ran off that day without waiting for me.” </p>
<p>You restrained yourself from laughing out loud, saying, “No, I wanted to make sure you didn’t see the smile on my face. I was super excited to see the surprised look that you would have seeing me here.”</p>
<p>And with that, he let go of you and you mixed into the crowd. Other girls walked forward to ask for a dance and of course, he had accepted them. But one thing was in his mind.</p>
<p>He was going to get you to marry him next year.</p>
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